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Monday, January 9, 2017

Isaiah 42

A flurry of Isaiah is brought to our attention in Epiphany year A. Chapter 42 again is so poetic to our tradition-immersed ears, we can scarcely hear any other but Elizabethan language. But repeated words are missed in this great English poetry and prose tradition. So you would miss in verses 3 and 4 (see table) the incarnation of weakness in the servant in this passage. The servant is one of us, damaged, dim, or bruised and smoking, but picturesque though these words are, they can't be used to support the poetry of the original where the wordplay is critical to the 'meaning'.

Word / Gloss

1

2

3

4

5

Vs

Stem

משׁפט the judgment of

░

1

שׁפט

יוציא he will bring forth

░

1

יצא

לא not

░

2

לא

ולא and not

░

2

לא

ולא or

░

2

לא

רצוץ damaged

░

3

רצץ

לא not

░

3

לא

כהה dim

░

3

כהה

לא not

░

3

לא

יוציא he will bring forth

░

3

יצא

משׁפט judgment

░

3

שׁפט

לא not

░

4

לא

יכהה he will dim

░

4

כהה

ולא and not

░

4

לא

ירוץ he will be damaged

░

4

רצץ

משׁפט judgment

░

4

שׁפט

I am surprised by this chapter. It morphs from the positive to a negative judgment. We don't usually read the whole thing. We fail to see the coming criticism, much in the style of Jeremiah and other prophets.

And I will usher the blind in a way they do not know, in pathways they do not know I will direct them.
I will set up darkness before them for light, and devious things as a level place. These things I will do to them but I will not forsake them.

But this is a people despoiled and plundered, snared in holes all of them, and in houses of restraint they are camouflaged.
They are to be despoiled and there is none to deliver, plundered and there is none saying, Return.